A NINE-YEAR-OLD schoolboy in Britain has made a new friend in Australia after his message in a bottle washed up on a Perth beach.

Cade Scott from Sunderland, north-east England, placed a Doctor Who postcard into an old wine bottle and let it loose in the North Sea in August 2011.

After travelling 15,000 kilometres in 16 months it was discovered by Matthew Elam, 25, as he celebrated Christmas at the beach. Matthew sent the Doctor Who postcard back to Cade with a WA postcard.

The schoolboy's father, Terry Scott, 42, told the Sunderland Echo he had first tried to send the bottle out to sea in Seaburn, but it washed back on shore after travelling only a few metres. They then took a trip to Roker Harbour determined to succeed second time.

''It is phenomenal. You wonder where that bottle has been and what it has seen. It is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. The fact it even got out of the English Channel was impressive enough.''